Japanese
An Opening Note This is widely viewed as Duolingo's worst course to date. However, after the updated course was released in 2019, it has vastly improved as is as good as any other Duolingo course, if not better. We do recommend supplementing your studies with the following free resources if you like: Lingodeer Tae Kim's free online Japanese textbook, also available in PDF format and as an iOS and Android app. Hiragana 1 Welcome to the Japanese course! While many consider Japanese to be very difficult to learn for native English speakers, this is only partially true. Many aspects of the Japanese language are quite simple, such as the sound system, and yes, even most of the grammar. Writing Systems Japanese uses three different writing systems, hiragana, katakana, and kanji. * Hiragana is the most basic Japanese syllabary. It's like an alphabet that uses syllables instead of individual sounds. * Katakana is the syllabary used to write foreign words and some noises. Although it's different from hiragana, it represents the exact same syllables. * Kanji are Chinese characters used in the Japanese language to write individual nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Kanji are not phonetic, meaning you need to memorize each pronunciation individually. In this course, we introduce kanji gradually and methodically. Hiragana Pronunciation Below are the most basic forms of Japanese hiragana. We'll be introducing some more later as well. As the only solitary consonant in hiragana, ん is especially notable because it is only found at the end of another syllable. In other words, you will never read a Japanese word that begins with ん。 You can also practice Hiragana on Tinycards. Enjoy the course! Hiragana 2 Hiragana Pronunciation Below are the most basic forms of Japanese hiragana. We'll be introducing some more later as well. As the only solitary consonant in hiragana, ん is especially notable because it is only found at the end of another syllable. In other words, you will never read a Japanese word that begins with ん。 You can also practice Hiragana on Tinycards Hiragana 3 Hiragana Pronunciation Below are the most basic forms of Japanese hiragana. We'll be introducing some more later as well. As the only solitary consonant in hiragana, ん is especially notable because it is only found at the end of another syllable. In other words, you will never read a Japanese word that begins with ん。 You can also practice Hiragana on Tinycards HIRAGANA 4 In the following skill, we introduce a few more elements to basic hiragana. Hiragana Part II: Dakuten Putting two little dots or dakuten at the upper right corner of a hiragana syllable voices the consonant. It changes the pronunciation of the hiagana the following way: Putting a little circle or handakuten at the upper right corner changes the pronunciation of the は-ひ-ふ-へ-ほ hiragana in the following way: Hiragana Part III: Small っ Putting っ (small tsu) between two Hiraganas doubles the letter right after っ and introduces a short pause between two sounds. See some examples below: Hiragana Part IV: Big and Small Characters Lastly, this skill introduces the big and small versions of three sounds in hiragana. A small や、ゆ、or よ changes the pronunciation of a word in the following way: The small character changes the two-syllable construction into a one-syllable construction. Sometimes, the difference can lead to a real change in meaning, as shown below: Introduction Introduction to Kanji This lesson introduces the non-phonetic writing system of Japanese, kanji. Kanji literally means "Chinese characters," and they're used to build content words like nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Kanji Readings So how do you read kanji? Most kanji have at least two possible readings. Typically, one reading is derived from a native Japanese word, and one reading is derived from a Chinese loanword. These are called "kunyomi" ("meaning reading") and "onyomi" ("sound reading") respectively. Let's take the kanji for "country," 国。On its own, we use the Japanese "kunyomi" reading, くに。In Japanese, くに means "country." However, in compounds, we use the "onyomi" reading of こく。Therefore, China, 中国 or "middle country," is read as ちゅうごく。 Rendaku So why isn't it ちゅうこく？This is due to a phenomenon known as "rendaku" or "sequential voicing." Syllables that come later in a word are sometimes voiced and marked with a dakuten. This is often rather unpredictable, so rendaku words should be memorized individually. Example Kanji Below is a table of the six kanji that are introduced in this lesson, complete with possible readings. You may have noticed that the word Japan, or 日本 is composed of the kanji meaning "sun" and "origin." This word was first adopted by the Chinese, and to them, Japan was off to the east, the place where the sun rose or "originated." Katakana Pronunciation This lesson also introduces katakana, the phonetic Japanese writing system used for foreign words. See their pronunciation below. Basic Katakana Katakana with Dakuten Introduction 2 Basic Grammar One thing that makes Japanese very different from English is the Japanese tendency to drop the subject of the sentence when the meaning is clear from context. Statements usually refer to oneself, while questions usually address the person you're speaking with. The Question Marker Adding question marker か at the end will make the affirmative (positive) sentence into question. If the sentences end in ～です, it’s easy to formulate questions by using ～ですか。 Pronouns Pronouns are relatively rare in Japanese, but they are sometimes used to explicitly specify the subject or topic of a sentence. Below are some of the most common ones. Kanji from this Skill Below is a table of the eight kanji that are introduced in this lesson, complete with possible readings. Greetings Saying Thank You The phrase "thank you" in Japanese is dependent on the situation. Below is a table of the most common forms, from least to most formal. Note that the formality increases with the length of the phrase. Saying Thank You for a Past Action If you'd like to thank someone for something they did in the past, you change the ございます ending to ございました。 Food 1 Object Particle The marker を is attached to things or people, and means that they are the target of the verb. Subjects are often omitted in Japanese sentences. Unlike English, the location of the verbs are usually at the end of the sentence. を was once pronounced wo, but now it’s the o sound. General Pronouns This lesson also introduces the general pronouns これ、それ、あれ、and どれ、which translate to "this," "that," "that (over there)," and "which (one)," respectively. Kanji from this Skill Below is a table of the two kanji that are introduced in this skill, complete with possible readings. TIME 3 へ: to (direction) へ indicates a direction towards which something or someone moves. This movement is the direction away from the current location. When used as a particle, へ pronounce as /e/.　 に: at / on / in (point in time) に with the time expression indicates a specific point in time (at / on / in). に can express clock times, days of the week, or years. HOME The Verbs あります and います あります and います are very special verbs in Japanese that refer to something's existence. They're often translated into English as "there is" or "there are." Even though they're often translated identically, they describe different objects: * あります is used for inanimate objects, like books, rooms, televisions, and apples. * います is used for animate objects, like people, cats, dogs, and other animals. RESTAURANT で: Place で usually shows the location of action or event (= at / in / on). で also indicates means (with / by / using) to show language used or tools used. Activity 1 Past Tense This lesson introduces the past tense of verbs. In Japanese, there are other varieties of tense, but we will cover those in later lessons. Changing a verb from the present/future tense to the past tense is rather simple. * パンを食 (た) べます means either "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread." * パンを食 (た) べました means "I ate bread." Instead of changing the negative ending 〜ません to make a negative past tense verb ("did not eat"), we simply add the word でした to the end. * パンを食 (た) べません means either "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread." * パンを食 (た) べませんでした means "I did not eat bread." The endings above apply to all verbs that end with 〜ます。 CLOTHES To make the negative form of an adjective (to not be…), drop い(i) and add くない(kunai). ACTIVITY 2 て form: Request ～て + ください is used for request. It means “Please do ~.” Classroom て form: -ing ～て + います is used for action in progress (-ing). ～て + いません is the negative form. て form: disallow ～て + は + いけません is used for things you should not do. Feeling Describing past Basic form of Adjective ends in い, as in あつい (hot). To make it past tense you can delete い and replace with かった. Adding です at the end will make it polite form. Hobby 3 ～のがすきです talks about things you like doing. In the example below, およぐ takes the basic (plain) form of verb and の is added, which become either “to swim” or “swimming”. The sentence is ～がすき（I like something.) as a whole. In this case, what do you like doing? I like swimming in the ocean. うみ で およぐ の が 好き です。 Classroom 2 て form: Negative Request ～ないでください is a negative request with the て form (て become で). The first two types are called Godan (u-verbs), which you change the /u/ sound ending into /a/ sound + nai to make a negative form. u-verbs: ならぶ (-u) → ならば ない (-a nai) ru-verbs: みる (ru) → み ない (nai) Health Short past form きのうは学校をやすんだ。 Short past form is made by taking て-form of the verb and replacing with た or だ. Colloquial Colloquial Language Welcome to the final skill in the Japanese course! The reason that colloquial language is listed as the final skill is that we wanted you to understand the importance of politeness when speaking with strangers or coworkers. When you speak with friends in casual settings or watch anime, you may hear a lot of expressions that you have yet to be introduced to. Pronouns There are two male pronouns reserved for casual settings, 俺 (おれ), meaning "I" or "me," and お前 (おまえ) meaning "you." In formal settings, use of these pronouns is considered confrontational and impolite. Both 俺 and お前 sound extremely rough and masculine, which is why typically they are reserved for boys or men who are teenagers or older. In addition, you may hear women and girls use the pronoun あたし (sometimes written 私) to refer to themselves. This is not considered as polite as わたし、but considerably more so than 俺。 Particle Dropping In polite and written Japanese, grammatical particles that mark parts of speech, such as は and が、see heavy use. However, in more casual settings, they are often dropped when the meaning is clear without them. In Japanese just as in English, formality and sentence length go hand-in-hand.